After drawing flak from educationists, parents, various schools and opposition from the States blaming the unhindered promotion until class VIII rule for adversely affecting the interests of students, the Central Government is understood to be considering to make some changes to the much touted ‘no fail until class 8’ policy.

Sources in the state education department say that the issue was raised in the recent meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the highest consultative body, which advises the state and central governments on education. “The policy has come under attack as states feel that the academic performance of students is suffering because of it. A decision will soon be made on whether to scrap the policy or not. If it isn’t scrapped, then changes will be made to the policy,” said a senior official from the education department.

The policy, introduced by Kapil Sibal under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) of 2009, has the state education department worried about the decline in the standard of students, as the RTE prevents schools from detaining students up to class VIII, irrespective of their test scores. “Schools complained that without exams it was difficult for them to judge if the child will be able to handle the syllabus of the next grade or not. They said that students will get used to not answering exams, and might find it difficult to face exams suddenly in class IX,” the official added.

He added, “The Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation is an extremely effective tool of measuring a students performance, but there were several misunderstandings on certain provisions of the policy. The policy does not tell schools to stop holding examinations, but asks them to conduct continuous evaluations.”

The Central Government has constituted a committee consisting of education ministers from four states to look into the issue. The committee has convened a meeting on 9 October and is understood to have invited educationists, activists in the field of education, teachers and professors to record their opinions, after which a review will be taken on the said policy.